Read the Letter

We are a group of businesses empowered by unencumbered
access to an open Internet. We are deeply concerned with the Federal
Communications Commission’s proposal to roll back its existing strong net
neutrality rules based on Title II of the Communications Act. We urge you to
maintain the existing rules instead.

Today, broadband is vital to American enterprise; connectivity is absolutely
essential to businesses. We also depend on a strong competitive framework and
legal foundation to ensure that Internet service providers (ISPs) cannot
discriminate against websites, services, and apps, or impose new fees that harm
small businesses.

The open Internet has made it possible for us to rely on a free market where
each of us has the chance to bring our best business ideas to the world without
interference or seeking permission from any gatekeeper first. This is possible
because the principle of net neutrality ensures that everyone has unimpeded
access to the Internet.

The Commission’s long-standing commitment and actions undertaken to protect the
open Internet are a central reason why the Internet remains an engine of
entrepreneurship and economic growth. We are deeply concerned that the proposed
regulatory changes to net neutrality will undermine free markets and
competition on the Internet. Despite assurances to the contrary, the changes
proposed by the FCC would remove the only existing legal foundation strong
enough to ensure net neutrality protections are enforceable: Title II of the
Communications Act, as implemented in the agency’s 2015 Open Internet Order.

While only a small handful of companies sell Internet access, nearly every
company in the country buys it – including ours. Weakening or rolling back the
2015 protections would be disastrous for the country’s business community.

Internet providers would gain new powers to steer businesses and customers one
way or another. For example, our customers’ Internet access providers could
charge us new fees for the right to get to our customers, or for prioritized
access to our customers. While big companies might be able to afford a
pay-to-play prioritized ‘fast lane’ to users, small and medium sized
enterprises like ours cannot; at the very least, such new fees would put us at
a distinct disadvantage with larger competitors. Internet access providers
could also charge our customers new fees for access to our websites and
services. And they could favor our competitors by slowing down our traffic or
exempting our competitors’ traffic from users’ data caps, or they could block
websites and apps outright. This would create immense uncertainty for companies
in every sector of the economy who rely on open, unencumbered connectivity as a
key enabler for their business and productivity.

While countries around the world embrace strong, common sense net neutrality
protections, American businesses could be left behind. We urge you to maintain
strong net neutrality rules and focus on policies that lower the barriers to
the deployment of new networks, encouraging more competition in Internet access
services.